In a perfect world, it wouldn’t take an all-star lineup -- such as the
one found on this album -- to introduce any respected musical artist to
the masses. Instead, the art should speak for itself. Reggae fans have
long known that Toots Hibbert is one of the most soulful voices in all
of music – let alone reggae – yet here he is singing some of his most
popular songs with a large cast of musical heavyweights. This may not
be a perfect world, but “True Love” is a nearly perfect album.

Many of the rock artists included here already have established
associations with reggae. Eric Clapton, for instance, had a big hit
with Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” while Keith Richards and the
Rolling Stones worked closely with Peter Tosh many, many years ago.
Terry Hall was a part of Ska’s second wave (The Specials), so it made
sense to have him (along with The Skatalites and U-Roy) join with Toots
for “Never Grow Old.” Ben Harper’s voice takes on a distinctly Jamaican
patois on “Love Gonna Walk Out on Me.” But then again, he’s recorded a
lot of his own original reggae already. Gwen Stefani, whose No Doubt
band has dabbled in and out of ska over the years, is also a natural
for the duet on “Monkey Man.”

The most aural fun of all comes with some of this project’s unexpected
pairings. The best of these is the one with funkster Bootsy Collins and
the Roots doing “Funky Kingston.” Just to hear Bootsy chanting “Toots,
Roots and Boots” is alone worth the price of admission. “Still Is Still
Moving To Me,” which features its writer Willie Nelson, is given a slow
reggae treatment for this project. It also sports one of Nelson’s
distinctive gut-string acoustic guitar solos. There are also a few
other guitar heroes here, however. “54-46 Was My Number” pairs Toots
with Jeff Beck. It begins with an oddly heavy metal Beck guitar intro
before going into a relatively predictable take on this song. Beck is
then heard throughout the track providing guitar fills, and he also
takes a relatively laid-back solo later on.

Toots is also joined by a few of his reggae peers on this outing. “Take
A Trip,” with Bunny Wailer, is probably the best pure reggae song here:
it’s slow, soulful and dread, finding Wailer doing a few spoken word
parts in a few places. “Reggae Got Soul” joins Toots with Ken Boothe
and Marcia Griffiths on a song that begins with a big bang of a horn
intro. “Bam Bam” (With Shaggy and Rahzel) is stripped-down,
percussion-driven rap reggae.

Some of these included artists don’t fit into nice neat categories.
“True Love Is Hard to Find,” for instance, has Bonnie Raitt providing
plenty of slide guitar work and passionate vocals. “Time Tough” has the
relatively young Ryan Adams on it and is powered by acoustic guitar and
organ. Adams sings with a more authoritative and less
desperate-sounding voice than usual here.

You get the feeling that all of these invited guests truly love the
music of Toots Hibbert, which makes this CD the perfect complement for
his work.